Though we are taught that here are three arms of government; in practice it was only the two arms of the executive and the legislature that appeared to be active. Except maybe after elections when election petition tribunals held sway. In this case, their frenzied operation was in stark contest to that of the regular courts with the tribunals permitted to sit till 6:30pm daily; including even Sundays!
Many months after, with judgments given, the courts, the judiciary would then seem to slump back into a semi-comatose state with cases being adjourned seemingly endlessly.
Case in point would be the APO 6 Killings , and the long wait ( twelve years) for ruling. However, over the past fortnight or so, the judiciary has gladdened the heart in three cases that made news nationwide.
The first was the Supreme Court judgment against one of the foreign oil companies. That ruling brought vague memories to mind of the initial litigation. I remember then how I wondered in passing, you mean Oil Company workers could go on strike? Even take their employers to court?
It had always seemed as if working in an oil company was the ultimate.
In this particular case, the oil company had really been acting clever, but it appears that they had caught themselves up in their own web of cleverness.
It was a situation where the oil company had engaged thousands of Nigerians as Special Police Service providers. But a few short years later, the employees were all dismissed and asked to go join the police force. Those affected did not take that without putting up a fight. And when demonstrations failed, they went to seek legal redress.
The apex court has upheld rulings of other courts that the dismissal was wrongful. The highest court in the land has also gone one step further, to my mind, ensuring that justice is seen to be done: They have ruled that all outstanding allowances must be paid the affected Nigerians.
The other case is quite chilling. It is a case where a father of children was convicted and jailed for the vicious assaults meted out by him on his own children. It is indeed novel for a court of justice to rule against a father, even jail him in Nigeria.
The National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons NAPTIP has three young children of same parents aged between 6 and 10 or 11 in their keeping. There would be others with them, but these three in particular had been so traumatized by their own father, a mid-level civil servant, that NAPTIP had to take the children in, and sue the man. Their mother had left home years back for reasons unknown,
The children’s father was said to whip the children with electric wires, leather cords and such like, almost on daily basis.
As at the time the children were taken into care, they were said to have been so traumatized that the mere sound of their father’s voice panicked them. From the photos circulated all over, the man is a tall hefty looking fellow. In fact, his looks alone are intimidating.
Well, Justice Valentine Ashi, upon examining the evidence before him has given a verdict for the Monster Father to be put behind bars. I second that. Good one.
What is trending now is the case against Senator Dino Melaye, for whom the process of recall by his constituency is ongoing. Since the matter is only just being heard, and with details so very sketchy, this column will “reserve judgment”, until the case actually unfold.
I’m afraid I will be disappointing the people who had wanted me to write on that right now, out, that would be in due course, not now.
This third case instead, is one that irks me because of the severity of the crime; and the very light punishment given.
First up though, I must say that I am glad to know that convictions are being given by the courts against our Nigerian human traffickers. It is pertinent to note that a great percentage of humans trafficked globally come from this part of the world. So for us to be such a great contributor to this global menace should demand us having stiffer preventative measures, as well as greater measures to serve as deterrent.
A Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu in Yobe has sentenced a 57 year old trader and farmer to jail for human trafficking.
At 57, Alhaji Yau Shuaibu Salihu considers it good to traffic underage girls (he was caught with nine of them) to Sudan.
Once again, it was NAPTIP that arraigned the fellow after he was caught by Immigration officers. He was apprehended when he tried to cross the border with Niger Republic, along with the victims.
With I find worrisome is that on the two court charge, he was found guilty of both and Salihu was sentences to… all of two years imprisonment. The Federal High court judge, Justice Hamna Isa Dashi found him guilty on each – thus sentencing him to four years in total.
I want to say that this is ridiculous.
In fact, it is deeply painful and distressing.
TWO YEARS FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING of minors; under aged girls?
Human trafficking, to my mind is a crime against humanity. CNN calls it Modern Day Slavery. It is a grave crime, it is despicable. And then a culprit, caught red-handed gets two years for it in Nigeria? The man was apprehended in 2017 when he committed the crime- I guess that means that at the end of this year he will probably be set free; who knows maybe even earlier.
To continue with the business, I suppose. IS IT A WONDER THEN, THAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS BOOMING IN NIGERIA?
I like to make reference in this column to this quotation about a society. Let me quote it here today again.
“There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well-being than the way it handles its criminals”.
Ramsey Clark.
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